Fracking For Ga$: The New US Gas Boom And The Issues It Raises

(source: Wikipedia.org) Hydraulic fracturing is the fracturing of rock by a pressurized liquid. Some hydraulic fractures form naturally—certain veins or dikes are examples. Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydro-fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a technique in which typically water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and the mixture is injected at high pressure into a well-bore to create small fractures (typically less than 1mm), along which fluids such as gas, petroleum, uranium-bearing solution, and brine water may migrate to the well. The radial distance of influence of the process from the well bore is typically 150 yards. Hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, then small grains of proppant (sand or aluminum oxide) hold these fractures open once the rock achieves equilibrium. These mixtures can leak into water sources causing potentially devastating contamination issues as you will see in the video below.

Every form of resource development has a cost to the land, the people, and the country. These costs are devastating and out weigh any good which is intended except for those in the driver’s seat of the proposed development. It has always been this way and will continue to be.